AWOL — A Guide To Getting Lost

Recent Chelsea College of Art & Design graduate Dan Cottrell has created a guide for the sole aim of getting lost. Pyschogeography is nothing new, but AWOL provides a beautifully simple design approach to the subject.

AWOL comes as a pack, consisting of a compass that doesn’t work, a simple poster and and a map that feature algorithmic walks, which always lovingly return you to your departure point – ensuring you can explore your surroundings worry-free.

The Japanese design firm Logos has invented a pretty cool extendable tent, which is great for families that expect expansion on the short term. Logos’s creation enables you to start with a small tent for backpacking purposes and grow your empire on the campsite over time into a complete tent city. The modular tent system is…

This summer the undulating roads of the British city of Bristol will quietly undergo a change. Unseen to the passer-by, the postboxes and lamp-posts, storm drains and man-hole covers that litter the streets will steadily be vitalised with powers of speech. People will begin to be able to greet the objects they encounter via text, and converse with them about the area in which they ‘meet’. All the information gathered from the exchanges will be stored, moderated and then fed back to others — meaning that dialogues and games, tips and stories can be shared amongst the residents of Bristol.

Having to deal with surveillance cameras in our cities is becoming more and more obvious nowadays, and while citizens are becoming used to the presence of these devices, artists and activists are constantly denouncing the intrusive role of the nearly-ubiquitous CCTV systems. It is interesting to notice how the practice of surveillance is growing without…